Labor Day FUN

So life has resumed at the home front here in Arizona. Tuesday Daniel started classes and I went back to work. YIPPIE! No it's really not that bad. I'm glad that we are getting back into a schedule. Since we went to Prague, then Michigan, Dan's surgery, road-tripping home, which is over a span of six months!!! ...I am SO happy to be back to real life. At least for now. We love our ward and we love our friends. Dan loves school and I love...I mean put up with work. So there's not too much to complain about at the moment. 

But before we restarted our boring lives we took a fun, short trip with Brody and Kylee. CAMPING!!! (note: this was my first time camping). We drove 2 hours north to flagstaff and it was g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! The weather was beautiful, so much better than Phoenix. 

Before we left we made tin-foil dinners. Ok, if this was YOUR first time camping, you wouldn't know what one of those were either. They were, however, surprisingly tasty! Also, the watermelon and root beer accompanied our dinner exceptionally well.

The rest of the night we spent playing cards, reminiscing about Prague, roasting marshmallows and another first...roasted starbursts! Yes. Step 1) choose your starburst. Step 2) ever so carefully spear your starburst to the end of a "poker." Step 3) Stick your poker in the fire until starburst has created a hard-candy shell. Step 4) enjoy an initial crunch of candy, followed by ooey-gooey goodness. HEAVEN!

First time camping was a success! We had such a fun time catching up with our friends since we haven't seen each other all summer. I wouldn't mind trying it again sometime :)

Road Trip 2010

The Tracy's have been BUSY!!!  Since we had about a two week break between the end of Daniel's internship in Michigan and the start of school in Glendale we decided to make a nice long road trip back home! First stop: Blackfoot, Idaho! It's been a while since we've seen our Idaho buddies...actually it's been one year since our big move! We got to see Nate and Camille's new house, play with the girls (wow they've gotten big) and see Jacob since he'll be attending BYU-I this fall. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures! We didn't get...well any of us hanging with the fam. Nate and Camille still had to work during the day. But we played a lot of guitar hero and cards! One of our days in Idaho we drove to Rexburg to visit my old stomping grounds at BYU-I. And a trip to Rexburg could not be complete without getting cupcakes from Cocoa Bean!  YUM! We really miss living close to family so it was a lot of fun to visit with them again :)

From Idaho we drove 13 hours to San Francisco, CA to visit Becky and Doug. I've never been to San Fran so it was TONS of fun to see all the sites! Day one we were in down town San Fran. We saw the following: Alcatraz (from a distance), shopped on pier 39, ate delicious sour dough bread bowls, went to Ghirardelli Square and had hot fudge sundaes, saw the golden gate bridge, visited the painted ladies (full house), walked through China town and generally experienced a bit of claustrophobia being in such a huge city surrounded by so many people!  

Day two in San Fran we drove to Muir Woods to see a beautiful redwoods forest! We walked about a two mile trail that looped around the woods and it was so majestic! I don't know if the pictures do them justice but these trees are MASSIVE! It was a nice break from the city and we had a lot of fun picnicking and doing some light hiking.

From San Fran we drove 6 hours to Los Angeles where Rachel and Scott live. And when I say they live in LA I mean they live right behind the Hollywood mountain lol. Rachel was such a great tour guide! She took us to Hollywood Blvd to see the Grauman Theater so we could track down our favorite celebs hollywood stars!

Per my request we also went to Newport Beach to indulge my O.C. obsession. We walked the pier while Dan had a Bluth frozen banana and I enjoyed my Balboa bar. You have to be an O.C. fan to know what that is :)

So Scott is my new best friend! He is a tour guide for the Warner Bros. Studio in LA and he took us on a tour of the complex. It...was....awesome! We got to see where they tape Ellen and the sound stage for Chuck...our new favorite show. Although we couldn't take any pics because they're currently taping. BUT Scott also took us to the old sound stage where they taped Friends!!! Yes, I got to sit on the Friends couch and walk around Central Perk. I KNOW! It was honestly the highlight of our whole trip lol.

Other fun stuff we saw in LA was shopping at Downtown Disney, wishfully strolling along Rodeo drive and driving around Beverly Hills. Overall LA was a ton of fun! Thanks Rachel and Scott!

So after nearly 12 days of driving we have finally arrived at our home in Glendale. And we are SO HAPPY to be back. Let real life resume.